RECIPES

aka... What To Do With Your
Delicious Vowley Farm Beef & Pork!

• Pot Roast
• Stew & Dumplings
• Liver Pate

And then, courtesy of Guy Green and as seen in his demonstration here at Open Farm Sunday, 2010

• Apple Gravy
• Sweet And Sour Sauce
• Meat Balls
• Lasagne

POT ROAST

This has got to be one of the easiest and most DELICIOUS ways to do dinner from a "slow roast" joint of our beef.

(serves 6-8 people)

• 1kg (2½lb) slow roast joint (brisket, chuck, flank)
• 4-6 small whole onions, peeled
• 4-6 small-ish whole carrots, peeled
• 4 sticks of celery, cut into 3
• ½ large swede, peeled and cut in chunks
• Beef dripping
• 100g (4oz) mushrooms
• ½ pint hot stock
• Sprig of thyme
• A bayleaf
• Thickening paste made with 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of flour mixed together
• Salt & Pepper

• Pre-heat oven to 140 c/gas mark 1
• Melt the dripping in a large thick bottomed cooking pot. Put in the meat and sear until it's brown all over. Remove to a plate.
• Brown the onions, carrots, celery and swede in the dripping.
• Empty the fat from the cooking pot and replace the meat and vegetables and mushrooms.
• Add hot stock, salt, pepper and herbs. Bring to simmer. Cover with foil and a tight fitting lid and place in the centre of the oven for about 3 hours. (I cooked one of our joints for nearly 4 hours... it was very tender and moist... real melt in the mouth stuff).
• Place the meat and vegetables on a warm serving plate.
• Bring the liquid in the pot to the boil. Add the butter and flour paste and whisk until the sauce thickens.
• Serve... and enjoy... YUMMY!

STEW & DUMPLINGS

The art is to cook this long and slow, a great way to heat the kitchen and fill your home with wonderful smells too! You can vary the ingredients and come up with your own variation on a traditional English classic. (Serves 2-3)

• 500g (1 pack) of Vowley Farm beef stewing (!) (Or you can slice/dice a slow roast joint)
• Chopped Onions, Carrots, Parsnips, Swede, Potato, Celery (any or all of the above, but not cut too small!)
• Little bit of dripping
• Stock (or Red Wine!) to cover
• Salt & Pepper

• Heat the dripping in a cooking pot and brown the meat (although you don't even need to do this bit!).
• Add the vegetables and salt & pepper.
• Cover with stock or red wine.
• Either cook on a VERY LOW HEAT on top of the stove for 2½-3 hours or put in the oven, 100C/gas mark 1 for 3-4 hours.

For the Dumplings:

• 100g (4oz) SR Flour
• 50g (2oz) suet
• Mix together with some salt, pepper and sage. (Makes an interesting change to put in some mustard powder too)
• Mix to a soft but dry ball with a little water.
• Roll into balls and drop onto the top of the stew for the last ½ hour of cooking.

I like the juice the consistency it is without thickening... gives the dumplings something to mop up... but thicken it if you want with some butter and flour paste.

I also make double quantities and freeze any leftovers (a likely chance!)

LIVER PATE

• 25g/1oz butter
• 25g/1oz flour
• 150ml/1/4pt milk
• ½ finely chopped onion
• 3 tbl spoons cream
• 200g/8oz bacon
• 500g/1lb liver
• ½ t/spoon sugar
• 2 t/spoons salt
• black pepper
• 2 eggs
• 6 finely chopped gherkins

• Make a thick sauce with butter, flour and milk.
• Stir in onion and cream.
• Mince bacon and liver and stir into sauce.
• Add all other ingredients and press mixture firmly into a greased bread tin.
• Cover with tin foil and stand in a dish partly filled with cold water.
• Cook for 55 minutes, 120 c / gas mark 3-4.

This freezes very well but use a very sharp knife to cut into useful sized portions before doing so!

Apple Gravy

• 1 beef stock cube
• ¾ pt of water
• 4 bramley apples peeled and sliced
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• Brown sugar to taste

Heat the stock cube in the water until dissolved, add the apples and heat until the apples are soft.
Add the sugar to taste and then add a tablespoon of cornflour mixed in a little water. Allow to thicken then serve with slices of pork tenderloin.

Sweet and Sour Sauce

• ½ jar of Chad’s honey
• ½ the amount of honey of white wine vinegar (¼ honey jar in this case)
• 2 carrots
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 piece of ginger root about 1 inch long
• 2 spring onions
• Soy sauce
• Chicken stock cube
• Cornflour

Put a little oil in the pan.
Cut the garlic into slices and the ginger into strips and fry in the oil gently for 3-4 minutes.
Add the honey and about half the amount of white wine vinegar. Heat through.
Add the carrots (cut in julienne (thin) strips), the stock cube and 1-2 tbsp of soy sauce.
Heat until bubbling then add 1 dessert spoon of cornflour stirred into half a cup of water. Heat until the sauce thickens then add the chopped spring onions.
As an option add some finely sliced chilli to provide a bit of heat to the sauce.

Meat Balls

• 500g Vowley Farm’s rare breed minced beef
• 2 medium onions finely chopped
• Salt and Pepper
• 10 Fresh skinned, chopped tomatoes or can of tinned tomatoes

Put the ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Form into balls half the size of a golf ball.
In a pan fry the onions, some sliced garlic and skinned, chopped tomatoes, set aside.
Put the meatballs in the pan and fry gently until browned on all sides. Add the sauce and heat gently for 15-20 minutes.

Serve with pasta of your choice.

Lasagne

• 1kg (2 packs) Vowley Farm’s rare breed minced beef
• 1 small pack (100g) of Vowley Farm’s bacon bits
• 2-3 onions finely chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 2 tins of chopped tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons of mixed herbs (sage, basil, parsley, bay leaf, oregano) – use fresh if available.
• Lasagne sheets (verdi or egg)
• 50g (2 oz) of plain flour
• 50g (2 oz) of Ceri's butter
• 1 pt of Ceri's milk
• 200g (8 oz) cheese (Ceri's Brinkworth Blue or similar full fat and flavoured cheese)

For the meat sauce

Fry onions and garlic in a little oil on a gentle heat until softened, set to one side.
Fry the beef and bacon in batches to brown it.
Add the onions, garlic, chopped tomatoes, beef stock and mixed herbs.
Mix and cook in the oven in a casserole for 2-3 hours at a temperature of around 150-160o C. Set aside and leave to cool (preferably overnight).
Alternatively the sauce can be cooked in a slow cooker 5-6 hours on low.

For the cheese sauce

Melt the butter in a pan and add the flour. Heat until the consistency of a smooth thick paste is achieved stirring all the time.
Add the milk a little at a time allowing it to thicken.
When all the milk has been added bring to the boil and allow to thicken stirring all the time.
Add the cheese broken into smallish chunks or grated. Stir until melted.

Building the lasagne

Put a layer of meat sauce into a lasagne dish, then add a layer of lasagne followed by half the sauce and repeat.

Bake in the oven for 40-50 minutes at 180o C.